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Author adaniels

Cobalt

“The eldest, Peter, wore blue jeans, plastic slippers, and a red shirt with the letters AIG stitched on the front. Imagine that on a remote hill deep in the Congo’s mining provinces, a child can be found digging for cobalt, wearing a muddy shirt with the logo of the behemoth American financial services company that had to be bailed out for $180 billion during the 2008 financial crisis. Imagine what even 1 percent of that money could do in a place like this, if it were spent on the people who needed it, not stolen by those who exploited them.”

Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara

Catastrophes

“What is really amazing, and frustrating, is mankind’s habit of refusing to see the obvious and inevitable until it is there, and then muttering about unforeseen catastrophes.”

Isaac Asimov

Alfa Romero

Alfa Romero is the multifaceted duo comprised of Marzio Aricò and Lorenzo Bartoletti. Both highly acclaimed musicians in their own right, the pair combine their many years of experience in electronic music for their all-encompassing Alfa Romero project. Working together as producers, DJs and label owners, the duo explore a shared musical vision in a partnership that aims to broaden the horizons of electronic music. As producers, Alfa Romero share a passion for club friendly music. Although their tracks keep the focus on the dancefloor itself, they come with rich colours, deep emotions and strong rhythms. Their deft ability at weaving subtle melodies into the mix also enables the duo to create moments of beauty that are rarely seen on dancefloors elsewhere.

Labor Laws

In the United States, the labor laws are very much in favor of the employer rather than the employee. In fact, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranks the United States as having the absolute weakest laws protecting workers from dismissal in over seventy countries worldwide. Pennsylvania is, like all states but Montana, an “employment-at-will” state, meaning that an employer can fire someone with or without cause. In direct contrast, in the European Union (EU), companies cannot fire people “at will”; the EU commission states quite clearly that employers cannot fire their employees simply for the “wish of the employer.” Yet, in the United States, there are very limited protections to the “at will” rule.

The Tolls of Uncertainty, How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America, Sarah Damaske

Vespera

Brexit.

“When the UK was in the EU, and during the transition period, (Andrew) Moss and other small businesses did not charge VAT (value-added tax) to customers in other EU countries. But EU rules dictate that VAT must now be paid before goods are received from the UK.

“Moss could not believe what was happening. Loyal customers were being told to pay about 20% extra on top of the quoted price for his goods. Of course, if this continued, they would look elsewhere.

“Moss had three options – and none would be easy. First, he could bite the bullet and pay the VAT himself. This would mean running at a huge loss and was not possible for the long term. Second, he could stop all exports to the EU – this would reduce the size of his business overnight and mean that years of hard work finding customers abroad had been for nothing. Or third, he could set up and register a company in the EU, ship all his goods once a week to avoid the delays and individual Brexit-related payments, and distribute his goods from there. The European branch of his company could then pay the VAT and claim it back from the government of whichever EU member state it was based on.

“To Moss, this looked like the best option, albeit one that would involve short-term costs and effort.

“As he pondered what course to take, Moss contacted his MP, the Conservative Lucy Frazer, warning her that if no help was offered he could have to “sack lots of people”. Frazer put him in touch with a civil servant in the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy who knew nothing about the VAT problem. “It was a complete surprise to him,” said Moss. But the civil servant did refer Moss to a senior trade adviser in the Department for International Trade.

“He confirmed that he couldn’t see any other way,” said Moss. “He told me that what I was thinking of doing was the right thing, that he could see no other option.”

[…]

“I just want somebody to tell me [admit] that Brexit is not about making Britain great again, not about empowering us, not about giving us back our sovereignty, Brexit is about the engine room of Britain investing significantly in Europe.

“False Dawn”, The Guardian (January 29, 2021)

Needs Revision

On Confidence (3/3)

“Confidence is not the belief that we won’t meet obstacles. It is the recognition that difficulties are an inescapable part of all worthwhile contributions. We must ensure we have plenty of narratives to hand that normalise the role of pain, anxiety and disappointment in even the best and most successful lives.”

The School of Life, Confidence – The Battle Against Timidity

On Confidence (2/3)

“The topic of confidence is too often neglected by serious people: we spend so much time acquiring technical skills, and so little time practicing the one virtue that will make those skills effective in the world.”

The School of Life, Confidence – The Battle Against Timidity

On Confidence (1/3)

“One of the greatest sources of despair is the belief that things should have been easier than they have turned out to be. We give up not simply because events are difficult, but because we hadn’t expected them to be so. The capacity to remain confident is, to a significant extent, a matter of internalizing a correct narrative about what difficulties it is normal to encounter.

The School of Life, Confidence – The Battle Against Timidity